Converters & Lookups Calculators
Converters and lookups for the unit and product questions that come up on every homestead: how much of one product equals another, and how to turn a recipe or ration written one way into the amounts you actually have.
Fertilizer N-P-K Product Calculator
Figure out how much fertilizer product to apply to hit a target nitrogen rate, based on the bag's N percentage.
Lime Product Equivalence Calculator
Convert a soil test's pure-lime recommendation into the actual amount of your specific lime product.
Livestock Ration Converter
Estimate daily feed amount per animal for goats, sheep, chickens, and rabbits.
Land Area Converter
Acres, hectares, square feet, square metres and more.
Firewood Volume Converter
Cords, face cords, ricks, cubic feet and cubic metres.
Liquid Volume Converter
Gallons, quarts, pints, cups, fluid ounces, litres and imperial gallons.
Pressure Converter
psi, kPa, bar, atmospheres, inches of mercury and feet of water.
Hay Bale Converter
Bales to pounds and tons, and how many bales make a ton.
Brix, Density and Sugar Converter
Brix to specific gravity, density and sap-to-syrup ratio.
Feed Weight to Volume Converter
Pounds of grain to quarts, cups and bushels, and back.
What a converter does
A converter takes a quantity in one form and gives the equal quantity in another. Homestead conversions are often between products, not just units: a bag of 10-10-10 fertilizer versus a bag of 5-10-5, a lime product with a different purity to the one a soil test assumed, or a ration written for one mix of feeds that you want to make from another. Getting these wrong wastes money at best and harms plants or animals at worst.
Current tools
- Fertilizer N-P-K product calculator: turns a recommendation in pounds of nitrogen, phosphate and potash into pounds of the products you can buy.
- Lime product equivalence calculator: adjusts an application rate for the calcium carbonate equivalent and fineness of your lime.
- Livestock ration converter: estimates daily feed per animal so you can hit the same targets with ingredients on hand.
- Land area converter: acres, hectares, square feet and square metres.
- Firewood volume converter: cords, face cords, ricks and cubic feet, so prices compare fairly.
- Liquid volume converter: gallons, quarts, cups and litres for canning, milk and water.
- Pressure converter: psi, kPa, bar and feet of water for canners, pumps and tanks.
- Hay bale converter: bales to pounds and tons, and bales per ton.
- Brix and density converter: sugar content to density and the sap-to-syrup ratio.
- Feed weight to volume converter: pounds of grain to quarts and cups.
Common conversion mistakes
The most frequent errors are mixing weight and volume (a cup of grain does not weigh the same as a cup of water), forgetting that fertilizer percentages describe the nutrient content by weight, and using a recommendation written for 1,000 square feet on an acre, or the other way around. An acre is 43,560 square feet, so the factor is large. Always check the basis of a recommendation before converting it.
Useful reference values
| Quantity | Equals |
|---|---|
| 1 acre | 43,560 square feet (about 0.405 hectare) |
| 1 cord of firewood | 128 cubic feet (stacked 4 ft x 4 ft x 8 ft) |
| 1 US gallon of water | About 8.34 pounds |
| 1 US bushel (shelled corn) | 56 pounds |
| 1 pound per 1,000 square feet | About 43.6 pounds per acre |
Need another conversion?
If you need a conversion that is not here, suggest it and we will consider adding it.
Common questions
Why convert between products and not just units?
Most homestead mistakes are product mix-ups, not unit errors. A soil test recommends pounds of nitrogen, but a bag contains a percentage of it. A lime recommendation assumes pure calcium carbonate, but your lime is not pure. The converters here handle that second kind of translation.
How accurate are converters?
As accurate as the factors behind them. We test every factor against a known value in both directions, and we cite the source of any factor that comes from a standard or a product rating.
What should I do if my product is not listed?
Use the product's label. Fertilizer labels list the percentage of each nutrient, lime labels list calcium carbonate equivalent, and feed labels list guaranteed analysis. Enter those figures and the calculators will do the rest.